London: The Oscar-winning team behind a film about the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden, ‘Zero Dark Thirty’, have refuted suggestions that the film is ‘pro-torture’, after the film renewed debate about the CIA’s brutal methods of interrogating Al Qaeda prisoners.

Hollywood director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal’s new film has been at the centre of controversy much before its official release.

The latest row to surround the film centres on claims by some critics that Zero Dark Thirty glorifies on torture methods of CIA, and shows the use of waterboarding leading to Bin Laden``s killings. There are also claims that the controversial scene is not based on historical events, The Guardian reports.

However, Bigelow and Boal have denied both allegations.

"This movie has been and will continue to be put in political boxes. Before we even wrote it, some people said it was an Obama campaign commercial, which was preposterous. And now it``s pro-torture, which is preposterous,” said Boal.

“We``re trying to present a long, 10-year intelligence hunt, of which the harsh interrogation programme is the most controversial aspect. And it``s just misreading the film to say that it shows torture leading to the information about Bin Laden. If you actually watch the movie, the detainee doesn``t say anything when he``s waterboarded. He gives them some information that``s new to them over the civilised setting of a lunch – and they go back to the research room and all that information is already there,” he added.

Bigelow added: "Do I wish [torture] was not part of that history? Yes. But it was."

The film is about how Bin Laden was killed at his Abbottabad compound in northern Pakistan in May last year by a US Navy Seal squad.